Monday, October 15, 2012

Mid-October Thoughts

Last week I devoured Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann. So freakin' good. It's The Magnificent Ambersons meets The Moon and Sixpence-- generations of a prosperous bourgeois family who become weaker and weaker until (gasp!) one of them wants to pursue (oh, the horror!) a life dedicated to art.The novel is loaded with details about trendy 19th century German homes. Like this one:"...a stuffed brown bear, standing on its hind legs, its jaws gaping wide…stands in the vestibule downstairs, a bowl for calling cards between its paws."

~Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks

So when I stumbled on this photograph the other day, it made quite an impression.

The photo led me to the book it's featured in: The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and the Cultures of Longing by Rachel Poliquin. Check out the cover -- isn't it heartbreakingly poetic?

(From "Life Can Be So Nice" by Iris Schieferstein, 2001. Photo by Stephan Rabold.)

This picture of the Bird Department at the Smithsonian made me start thinking about why we collect things. According to Rachel Poliquin, the desire to collect is stronger than ever in today's digital world.

(From "The Breathless Zoo." Photo by Chip Clark.)

Objects have talismanic power. Owning something and being able to touch it actually sends a whizz! of oxytocin to our brains.

I definitely like to collect ideas. But a person's memory bank is only so big. And when your brain gets really crowded (or...ahem... isn't as absorbent as it used to be), I think you need to start saving your ideas outside your body.

I put this picture up in my office because I get a rush of blood to the head just looking at it. Dickens was a rock star. When he did his reading tour in America in 1868, people camped out for tickets, swarmed his hotels and grabbed fistfuls of fur from his coat. It was craaaazytime and the stress ended up killing him two years later.

To recap. In this post, we've covered a family's slow disintegration into decadence, the lingering fascination with dead animals, Dicken's demise and beautiful female poisoners.Hmmm.

Damn you, Halloween spirit. You got me again.

x/LisaP.S. Oh! Someone from the East Coast emailed me yesterday that the November issue of Martha Stewart (with MY NEW ARTICLE IN IT) is out. It's not at my grocery store yet, but maybe it's at yours. Let me know what you think!

All of the little stuffed animals reminds me of a show my son sometimes watches on Science Discovery called "Oddities". Talk about collecting the obscure! Tell us more about the Dickens ticket stub. How did you obtain such a treasure?

Lisa, thanks for the heads up about your article. Do you know I was never able to find a July edition of Martha Stewart in the bookstore or grocery stores? They seemed to have everyone but that edition when I went looking for it. Strange, huh? Do you ever plan on ever sharing that article here? I SO wanted to read it.Leslie (aka Gwen Moss blog)

I am wild for that photograph of the Smithsonian's bird collection. Incredible. Can't decide whether I love the birds more, or the old bird standing among them. Delightful. I simply can't stop collecting, or amassing, or accumulating. Having a good auction house nearby in the country that has wonderful sales of all sorts of stuff doesn't help, either! I suppose I'll find myself the subject of a hoarder's reality episode. Well, of very pretty things, that is... Looking forward to reading your piece in MSL! Reggie

RAH what a great post! As a companion to a parrot, I do find stuffed birds to be very sad. But as a collector frustrated by my limited space, I am thrilled by all the little drawers and bulletin boards and piles and the collection techniques of others.And the change o season, such a good time to start a new book.

Great post and the books you mentioned look so good. My great-great grandfather was the only taxidermist in Baltimore in the early 1900's (according to an article we have), so I find that field interesting. He owned a pet store selling mostly birds and fish. He was a hunter as well. My own son used to be a bug/moth/butterfly collector and we have 2 boards in his room with bugs/moths/butterflies displayed and labeled. Kind of gross and kind of cool.

Lisa, I love the trail of thoughts in this post. They are so fun. You link them together is such a wonderful way that the segues are perfect. I love the taxidermy art. Congrats on the article. I'll have to keep an eye out for Martha Stewart magazine.

The woman in the picture of the National Bird Collection at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Instution, is Roxie Laybourne. She was gone before I started working there, as a librarian in the Paleobiology Department, and I always wished I could have known her. She pioneered the study of airplanes and bird strikes, was one of the greatest feather identification experts to ever live, lived alone on a big farm in Virginia and rode a motorcycle to work for most of her life. From what I know of her, you and your readers would have loved her. That collection is one of my favorites in the museum, though I must admit to being partial to the big woolly mammoth skull that stares at me from across the library all day...

Wow! I loved your meandering post here; so many topics covered, but done pretty seamlessly! The book by Mann is now on my to read list, and I loved that it inspired you to research the fascination we have with taxidermy. It is pretty awesome that you found a stuffed bear with a bowl... in a foyer! ~Lori

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